In terms of orienting a cylinder, the thing to keep in mind (not necessarily to draw every time):

• The box it sits in
• The pivot lines (horizontal line/vertical line)
• Ellipses (the circular face of the cylinder that will shift in orientation based off of how we see it. The ellipses (the round shapes) that are on each end of the cylinder.

Drawing "through the figure" can be a good way to figure out if your orientation is correct on the bottom curve as well.

Drawing through the figure means even though we don't see the plane on the back side of the cylinder, we're drawing the edges it to make sure that it works out on that other side as well, and that our contours still look right.

As the cylinder pivots and orients more towards eye level, the ellipses become more and more flat.

Also, if we're placing the cylinder in space and you can also think of it as receding into space or coming towards us as a foreshortened object.

For more on how to draw cylinders with more dexterity and precision:

Circle and Ellipses Practice

Drawovers of Student work:

This student drew the puppet pancakes (a very good cylinder exercise!) in multiple angles! Here are their 9th, 10th, and 11th, and 12th pancakes! I love that students often do multiple rotations and multiple practice to get it right!

Reminds me of the saying “don’t practice until you get it right, practice until you can’t get it wrong!” I feel like that’s a LOT of practice, but the spirit of the saying is true! It’s best to practice until you can consistently nail something, and here’s a great example! More pancakes are correct than incorrect! Great work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0g2MMsvqEM

Modern Day James has a good video of (a lot of things) but applying this cylinder rotation to a basic shape character

BECOMING A GI 4: POSING IN PERSPECTIVE

For more practice with cylinders, I also recommend these sketchfab models below:

Cylinder